he Android version of the app also provides a list of authenticated gaming apps and a secured platform to make mobile payments, Trend Micro said. An iOS version will be available within a month, the company said.
"We're offering a happy and secured platform for the country's gamers, who range from 5 to 80 years old," Trend Micro co-founder and CEO Eva Chen told a press conference held to announce the alliance with the local gaming industry.
A study by the government-funded Institute for Information Industry found that of the estimated 15.8 million people who used fixed or mobile internet in Taiwan last year, more than 34% of them had purchased virtual items within games.
Of that group, more than 3 million gaming users had virtual items they purchased stolen by malware programs or hackers, the study found.
An estimated US$235 million in virtual items are stolen per year, similar to the total annual output value of all of Taiwan's gaming companies, according to a survey by Bahamut, a community site for local gamers.
